Abstract
‘Neoliberalism’ is the dominant theme pervading numerous studies of post-apartheid urban development in Cape Town. This often renders invisible the many nuances and complexities embedded within its transitions. Via critically examining the assumption of the neoliberal usurpation of urban governance in Cape Town’s policy formation, this paper highlights critical historical contingencies from 1994; contingencies framing a discursive formation as less the choreographies of global capitalism and more the committed and sincere mobilisation of a local, grassroots movement to ‘save’ the city from urban decline. Largely unacknowledged in the literature, its exploration is crucial to transiting from a putative and omnipotent neoliberalism as a bottomless well of explanation to admitting and appreciating subjective agency in the origins, evolution and trajectory of the city’s urban development. This, in turn, furnishes insights about the metamorphosis and mutation of the original—ostensibly sincere—discursive formation into the particularly powerful and potent form of market-led urban regeneration sponsored in Cape Town today.
Highlights
Neoliberalism Or?Cape Town’s dramatic turnaround from the plunging spiral of crime and grime into a top tourist destination, an attractive home for business and investment, and a ‘safe space’for consumer citizens is attributed to city improvement districts (CIDs); camera surveillance systems coupled with foot- and mounted-security patrols; removal of informal parking attendants and the introduction of a new parking management system; dramatic expansion in municipal policing; and ‘zero tolerance’ to crime
For consumer citizens is attributed to city improvement districts (CIDs); camera surveillance systems coupled with foot- and mounted-security patrols; removal of informal parking attendants and the introduction of a new parking management system; dramatic expansion in municipal policing; and ‘zero tolerance’ to crime
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Cape Town Partnership (CTP), is that ‘New York took five years to transform itself; our turnaround has been very visible in two years’ [1]
Summary
Cape Town’s dramatic turnaround from the plunging spiral of crime and grime into a top tourist destination, an attractive home for business and investment, and a ‘safe space’. For consumer citizens is attributed to city improvement districts (CIDs); camera surveillance systems coupled with foot- and mounted-security patrols; removal of informal parking attendants and the introduction of a new parking management system; dramatic expansion in municipal policing; and ‘zero tolerance’ to crime. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Cape Town Partnership (CTP), is that ‘New York took five years to transform itself; our turnaround has been very visible in two years’ [1]. Cape Town’s public-private partnership is hailed as ‘more detailed and more advanced’ than models prevalent in in both American and European cities [3].
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